Kenyan radio station manager wanted at The Hague

Kenyan journalists assumed senior politicians from the
ruling party and opposition would
be singled out for inciting the public to kill after the 2007 presidential
elections--but they were shocked to find out that one of their own has been
named.

Last week, International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief
Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo released a list of six suspects wanted by The
Hague for their role in instigating Kenya's
2007 post-election violence that included the director of a small,
vernacular radio station in western Kenya. Moreno-Ocampo asked for the six to
be issued "summonses to appear" at the court. The ICC
announced that the court would now determine whether "there are reasonable
grounds to believe that the six persons named committed the alleged crimes" and
then "decide on the most appropriate way to ensure their appearance."

Joshua
Arap Sang, the head of the Kalenjin-language radio station, Kass FM in Rift Valley, western Kenya, presented
a morning show, "Lene emet" (What Is the World Saying). According to the ICC,
Sang was a prominent supporter of the opposition party under Raila Odinga and used
his station to "collect supporters and provide signals to members of the
plan on when and where to attack." After the public accused incumbent President
Mwai Kibaki and his supporters of election rigging, the ICC alleges a plan was
put in place in the Rift Valley to attack Kibaki's supporters. The ICC
prosecutor said police and those supporters then retaliated in a similarly
violent manner.

The violence killed some 1,200 people in early 2008. Peace
was eventually brokered, with a power-sharing
deal between Kibaki and rival Odinga, and an agreement that the
perpetrators of the violence would face justice in Kenya or at The Hague.
Despite recent efforts by certain politicians to derail the process, Sang is expected
to face charges for murder, deportation, persecutions, and torture.

Sang said he was surprised to be included among the
suspects, the Daily Nation
reported on December 16. "As a matter of fact I went on air to request my
listeners to be calm and embrace peace during the time when violence had
engulfed the country," Sang told the paper.

But a United Nations Development Programme study of the
media's performance over the post-election violence concluded that vernacular
stations, including Kass FM, made inflammatory
statements. The study cited
cases of Kass FM making negative comments about other ethnic groups whom
they accused of stealing and occupying their traditional homeland in the Rift
Valley. On one occasion, the study reported, a caller emphasized the need to
"get rid of weeds"--a chilling metaphor reminiscent of Rwanda's Radio Mille
Collines, which called on the public to "cut the trees down," inciting Hutus to
kill their Tutsi neighbors.

Kass FM, however, was not the only station singled out for
inciting ethnic violence in the study. Others included the Kikuyu-language
stations Inooro and Kameme FM and the Luo station Lake Victoria. The difference
was in the intensity of the speech, University
of Nairobi journalism lecturer George Nyabuga said. Some of the worst
scenes of ethnic violence took place near the station in Eldoret, in western
Kenya, Nyabuga said, including an episode where Kenyans were burned alive inside a local
church.

While most local journalists CPJ spoke to support the ICC's
decision to charge Sang, some fear the government will use this case as a basis
to silence the press. The Information Minister often uses the alleged role
played by the local media during the post-election violence as a justification
to crack down on the media, the chairman of the Kenya Editors Guild, Macharia
Gaitho, said. The guild is challenging the government, Gaitho said, to
provide evidence and take action against individual journalists rather than
resorting to blanket condemnation.

Yet Sang's indictment could have a positive impact on the
Kenyan press. Internews, an
international media development organization, worked closely with local radio
stations during the post-election violence to encourage responsible, ethical
reporting. Internews Kenya Director Ida Jooste
told CPJ she sees this as an opportunity for the local media to reflect on the
impact their words can have on society and encourage more effective
self-regulation.

Tom Rhodes is CPJ's East Africa representative, based in Nairobi. Rhodes is a founder of southern Sudan’s first independent newspaper. Follow him on Twitter: @africamedia_CPJ

Comments

Hi Tom, you might find it interesting to read this - if you are an insomniac. I interviewed Sang and visited Kass in February. Kass and other vernacular radio's didn't get to RTLM levels but were very biased, quite inflammatory and at times guilty of broadcasting hate. Kass was probably worse than the others. Government officials gave me the impression they might use things like this to try to silence opposition press and radio -but then said the private media were probably beyond government control and the covert role of senior politicians in owning papers and radio/TV stations meant that legislation would be impossible.